SNP Announce £ 100m Economy Boost Package

Nicola Sturgeon has today announced a package of measures to stimulate Scotland’s economy following the result of the EU referendum.

Action includes bringing forward government spending on infrastructure and providing fresh support for businesses.

Here’s what you need to know.

An additional £100 million of capital spending will be brought forward this year.

This will be in addition to planned capital spending for 2015-16 and will include spending in health and other key infrastructure sectors. Details of funding for future years will be announced in due course.

Projects worth almost £6 billion are already under construction as part of the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan.

A new Business Information Service will be launched to provide support and reassurance to businesses in Scotland.

This service will be a single point of contact for individual businesses to provide up-to-date information, answer questions and address business concerns about the future. This is something that was requested by business organisations in Scotland in the wake of the EU referendum.

A new Post-Referendum Business Network will help shape policy and support for businesses.

The network will allow the Scottish Government to work more closely with the main business bodies, the STUC and the Scotland Office on business support and policy.

The UK government must take action to get the economy moving.

The UK government has not taken any meaningful action to alleviate uncertainty or boost confidence in our economy since the EU referendum. It must give assurances about Scotland’s EU funding, and bring forward a UK-wide stimulus package that would further enable the Scottish Government to accelerate capital spending.